The year 2020 brought extraordinary and unexpected challenges that tested the strength of basic institutions, demanded courage and sacrifice in the face of a raging pandemic, underscored racial and economic inequities, and produced the biggest turnout of voters in the history of U.S. elections. In the end, America was as […] Read more »
How Trump won the economic message battle
President Donald Trump has always liked to talk about how strong the economy was under his watch. Although judging a president’s economic performance can be difficult because there’s only so much he can control, Americans at large, and voters specifically, seemed to agree with Trump. If the economy were the […] Read more »
A ‘cult president’? Breaking down Trump’s support
What does it mean to be a “cult president”— one whose supporters will believe and trust him no matter what any other government officials, academics, journalists, politicians, and “professional” experts say? Donald Trump could at the very least be characterized as one of the few presidents with a cult of […] Read more »
As Trump leaves office, 50% of Americans say he’ll be seen as ‘failed’ president
President Donald Trump leaves the White House next month with the country more sharply divided than when he moved in and amid caustic assessments of his record in office, a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll finds. Fifty percent of Americans now predict history will judge him as a “failed” president. […] Read more »
Lessons from 2020 (that I can’t yet prove)
The year 2020 threw a lot at us. While (hopefully) the year will remain a fairly unique one in our history, surely there are some useful political lessons we can draw from it. So what follows is an incomplete list of lessons we’ve learned that I’m pretty sure are true […] Read more »
Americans’ readiness to take the COVID-19 vaccine spikes after the start of shots
Americans’ willingness to take the coronavirus vaccine has jumped since the first two vaccines were authorized by the FDA and health care workers and nursing home residents began to receive the shots. That growing acceptance is a reassuring sign for public health experts who call distribution of the vaccine crucial […] Read more »